Life needs to be turned to account, time donated, hope sown, God spoken of and Jesus Christ proclaimed in the Church: these are, according to the leaders of the youth apostolate of the Swiss Episcopal Conference, the aspects that may help reflection on the youth world. The basic question, affirm the Swiss bishops, is “how can I approach the young person and enhance his/her life?”. It is important, in this regard, to reflect on the Church’s mission to youth and on the need to be present, to offer one’s services to and express one’s recognition of those who ‘offer’ and ‘donate’ themselves. Not only the young, in fact, according to the Swiss bishops, have a journey to undertake, “but we too, too often shut up in our offices or apartments. But young people will not come to us. It’s we who must go to them or at least invite them to come. We must go towards them, we must walk at their side, neither behind them or in front of them. The greatest help that may be given to the young concerns their future, by stimulating their capacity to look upwards and further into the distance”. This accompaniment of the young is “an indispensable process that permits us to speak of God. In each activity, whether it be political, sporting, social, the aim will be that of proclaiming Jesus Christ, to be ‘salt of the earth and light of the world’. And this proclamation is realized through the word, the liturgy and charitable service within the Church and to the world. The young respond to the appeal of Christ if we go towards them and walk at their side”.
